magical dream date

For some reason it came up in conversation that Mike and I both liked trying different beers and we decided we should hang at one of the various places around town that specialize in beers on tap.  When he texted me on Friday I wasn't really thinking about the fact that we were making plans to hang out for our friday night.  It ended up being a really good time and reminded me of the last time I went on a magical dream date, 4 YEARS AGO.

Maybe it also reminded me of my last magical dream date because Amy is the last blogger I have had the pleasure of spending an evening with.  Mike does a video blog which I'm a little envious of.  I really like the way he puts his together, but hearing and seeing myself on video reminds me why I was never able to make the video blog thing happen:




Still it was fun to be a part of his blog, and to have him make a guest appearance on mine.  And it inspires me to plan more magical dream dates with people.

Elliot, I'm coming for ya!

2 for 1

Since I suddenly found myself with the day off yesterday Sarah took me out for two for one beers and dinner.  Those are actually two, two for one beers that were brought to me after much confusion.  When I found out that they had Guinness I asked the waiter if I could have a black and tan and if that was included in the two for one.  He had never heard of a black and tan and after I explained to him what it was he said, "oh let me go see if they can make it".  I don't think he quite got that it was just mixing two beers together and that as long as they had the two beers they could definitely do it.

Anyways in all the confusion the bartender ended up making two gigantic black and tans so I ended up getting four for one.  It's a good thing I was making Sarah pilot the benz.  Hahaha she got angry at somebody in traffic and then she was like, "See when I get all crazy in this I just look like a bitch in my mercedes.  If I saw myself in traffic I'd be like, "calm down, you're in a mercedes, you're fine"

It is kind of true.  The tinted windows help though.

finally, Linden

It was a dull weekday last spring when Linden came in to my work and we decided that we should be best friends.  UNfortunately every time we tried to make plans to hang out they were thwarted by the universe.  That is until yesterday.

We had originally planned on the beach but as you can see it turned in to a dark day in South Florida.  Not even Star Island could get the clouds to part for them.  We decided to just hang out on Lincoln road, where nobody will be surprised that I asked her to take me for tacos.

After some post dinner shopping we were headed back to the car when we heard some distant music.  Without hesitation Linden headed towards the music.  This is where we ended up:

Some kind of back alley party.  The best part of the whole thing was that Linden didn't seem surprised by any of it.  I guess you can't turn a corner on south beach without running in to a raging street party.  Another reason I'm glad I moved down here.

I'm also glad that Linden and I got to hang out.  I had a great time and look forward to having somebody to show me around south beach more.  I look forward to many more adventures in the future.

post life chore mini vacation

The great thing about living in Florida is that you can turn a regular day off in to most people's vacation dreams.

And even though he isn't feeling well Jon pulled it together to be good company.

Now we're doing the afternoon after beach routine (beers and showers) before heading out for dinner.  We got in an argument earlier about how key lime pie isn't green so maybe we'll drive down to settle this dispute once and for all.

beer and billiards

Scott met me at Shakespeare's to play pool, and so I could knock a few beers off my list.  I liked the name of this one, and then I liked the bottle even more.  Katy and I were just talking about how important the cover of a book is and how the image can make or break the book before you even pick it up.  This of course flies in the face of the whole, "don't judge a book by the cover" thing, but we both agreed it's true so get over it.

And talk about a well named beer, I can think of no better way to describe it than robust.

I needed to eat before I could play pool so I was already on to my second beer before we even started.

Sticking to the theme of picking my beer by the name I went with "old engine oil".  It wasn't bad, it was supposed to have a chocolate flavor that I didn't get quite as much as with some of the others I've tried, but it wasn't bad.  I would get it again if I saw it on a menu somewhere, mostly because I'll remember the name.

Anyways, I blame the beer (and the racking) for the travesty that occurred on the billiards table that evening...

I guess I forgot the part where Scott was some kind of pool hustler.  If the games didn't cost a dollar each, and go by in a matter of minutes, I would have stayed longer and tried to improve my craft.  Unfortunately this blood bath was over before it even really began.

I'll redeem myself next time.

dessert

omg it was so good!  When I ordered it the bartender made a face like she was jealous and wanted one herself.  Now I know why.

It was not unlike a guinness, but with way more flavor.  I guess a guinness tastes kind of smooth and creamy to me, so much so that ariel can down one in literally a gulp.  At least I think she still can do that, I haven't seen her do it in years, but oh is it a spectacle.  We used to talk about running some kind of bar scam with her and all the dumb frat guys on the upper east side.  Why did we never do that?

Besides this chocolate stout being amazingly delicious, while I was enjoying it "my guy" came on the radio.  I told the bartender that I was just talking about sister act so now I felt like I had to go home and watch it and she very earnestly said, "listen, there are worse things to have to go do".

I couldn't agree more.

orange you glad I didn't say banana?

I have to admit I chose this beer initially because of the 13% alcohol content.  I needed a quick fix.  I knew I had made the right choice when I saw both the happy go lucky devil in the moonlight, and the wee goblet that my beer was to be poured in.

Then my eyes travelled down and saw why this beer and I were meant to be:

I was just explaining to somebody how I've come to realize that twirling your hair is a lot like smoking a cigarette.  If you've never actually done it you are really bad and awkward at pretending to do it, but once you've actually done it as a habit you understand the subtle intricacies.  It's not that I twirl my hair because I'm a dumb blond, it just really does feel good and gives my busy hands something to do while I think about dumb blond things.

But back to the beer.  I liked this Belzebuth from France, it had a very orange flavor to it that was unexpected and nice.  It almost tasted like a blue moon after you've dropped the orange wedge in it.  Except way more alcoholic.

After my Belzebuth and my dinner I decided I should have one of the dessert sounding beers.  I had been eyeballing this one last time so I figured I'd just bite the bullet and get it:

And let me tell you, gross.  Actually, Gross, with a capital "g".  The banana flavor was just so intense.  It was as if somebody had taken all the banana runts they didn't want and dumped them in to a beer.  And I was so optimistic about it too.

I will say though that had I not gotten it I wouldn't have read the neck and been reminded of one of my favorite memories of all time:

Andrew came to visit me in new york for his 21st birthday way back in the college days.  Andrew's birthday being in February meant that it was one of those "blizzard of the century" kind of deals that it seems new yorkers claim every winter.  I was determined to show Andrew a good time so we went downtown and bummed around from empty bar to empty bar.  Somehow as midnight approached we were at a bodega and I insisted that Andrew get a beer to chug at midnight to celebrate being 21.  Andrew (of his own volition) chose one of those big cans of Foster's.

I will just never forget Andrew standing on the street in the falling snow outside some random bodega in downtown new york, trying to chug a freezing cold fosters, saying over and over, "I can't do this!  It's like trying to drink a loaf of liquid bread!"

But he had to, it was his duty that night.  And it was all worth it when we finally arrived back home and he threw up all over his own car before he realized it was his car.

Good times.

flavorful

I was drawn to this beer initially because of "unibroue" because frankly, who doesn't enjoy a good unibrow.  When I read the description I was even more interested, something to the affect of, "green apple beer...NOT CIDER...beer".

When I poured the beer in to the glass the aroma of green apple was so strong it made me nervous to even try it.  After having had some bad experiences with green apple-tinis I am very particular about when I can drink green apple flavored things.  Surprisingly though the beer tasted nothing like green apple.  It was very strange, but not unpleasant.  The bartender asked me how I liked it and I told her and she said, "I know right?!" before taking a big sniff of the empty bottle.  That was also strange, yet not unpleasant.

Most of the beers on the list are about the same price give or take a dollar, but there are a few that are dramatically more expensive.  I decided that I should knock one of them off my list while I was feeling adventurous so I ordered this barn owl beer:

It was described as having a toffee flavor (which it did) that sounded delivious (which it was).  I figured toffee must be hard to add to beer or something and that's why it was so expensive until I turned the bottle around and read the back:

First lets discuss how "fuggles" sounds like a word Meghan would play in scrabble and then look at me patronizingly when I doubted its actually being a word.  I'm sure she would just nonchalantly say something like, "Oh I have some leftover fuggles in the fridge from the last batch of beer Sam and I made"

But the point is that suddenly the price of the beer made sense and I felt like I had done something good for the barn owls.  Won't somebody please think of the barn owls?!  Apparently these lushes are.

All in all I was pleased with my beer selection last night.  They satisfied my cravings in exactly the way I didn't even realize they needed to be satisfied.  That's always the best scenario, like when Mariah surprises you with a high note, or when Oprah pretends she's doing a show about sex offenders but then it ends up being her favorite things episode.

I think I'm still drunk.

still working on it

I was browsing the list of beers, feeling like I had no idea what to go with, when Kelpie jumped off the page at me.  I was expecting something that tasted more like seaweed but it actually had more of the smooth quality that comes with kelp, as Mr. P would have been quick to point out.

I quite enjoyed it, and the bartender enthusiastically said, "It's got seaweed in it, that's gotta be good for you!"

I realized I hadn't had a draught beer here in a while so I looked at the tap right in front of me and said, "I'll have that one next".  Little did I know I was going to get the most delicious beer served in the most fantastic glass:

It was so sweet and delicious, I could drink it all day.  The glass kind of reminded me of the boot, its shape is misleading as far as how much booze you have drunk/have left to drink.  I like mind puzzlies while I drink, like erotic photo hunt.  Makes me feel like I'm exercising my mind while I kill brain cells.

The best part of this trip to Shakespeare's was that they had AMC on which showed the original Rambo followed by Kill Bill part 1.  I basically got to see the best of both.  My favorite part about Rambo was when the closed captioning said, "[vietnamese shouting]", and for Kill Bill we stayed through the whole opening sequence with Vivica A. Fox (amazing) as well as the whistling scene with Daryl Hannah (also amazing).

I feel like if I had a bar I would be so good at picking out things to watch on TV or listen to or whatever.  I just don't get bars that don't understand the dynamics of entertainment.  Yesterday at Shakespeare's gives me hope for them yet.

two more down

My father and I had dinner plans yesterday but he forgot.  It wasn't until I smelled whatever deliciousness he had made for himself that I realized he wasn't going to be eating with me.  Thankfully Scott was available and wanted to meet me at Shakespeare's so I could work on my beers around the world.

I chose this first one based entirely on its name.  I felt like I needed a skull splitter yesterday afternoon.  As I was drinking it Scott asked me if it was one of the high alcohol content ones.  I said I didn't think so, then looked to see that it was like 8.7% alcohol.  It certainly tasted smooth and refreshing.  I don't think I realized how tipsy it really made me until much later when I was halfway through a frozen snickers bar wondering why on earth I would ever eat a frozen snickers bar.

Regardless the beer was quite good.  I wanted a second but couldn't muster up the strength to think about what I should get so I picked the second one based completely on number.  I chose a number on my card that seemed sad and alone and needed to be punched out of it's misery.

I actually quite like this beer so it was a pleasant surprise.  Besides reminding me of the german place on 86th street that I used to frequent, it also always reminds me of Emma and her parents who always had a six pack of this in the fridge.  They are the only people I know who kept hoegaarden on hand.  I can understand why though, it's really light and summery, actually a perfect charleston beer.

I need to tally up how many beers I have had and how many I have left.  I always think I'm further through the list than I am.  It's because these foreign beers have such high alcohol contents and I'm such a lightweight.

I know what you're thinking Jon, 'you are so white'.

porkslap!

Meghan encouraged me to get this last night at Motorino because she said the image on the can was well worth it.  And she was right.

The beer was good too.  Had a nice honey flavor to it.  And the pizza, oh the pizza.  I'm going to have to take Jon here the next time he's in new york cause it was mad good.

another one down

My sleep schedule has been all out of whack the past few days thanks to some unscheduled late night adventures so I've basically been sleeping for a few hours at a time then being up for a few hours and then back to sleep.  I'm pretty much on the same cycle as kitty at this point.

The other day I woke up at like 4 in the afternoon and was extremely hungry.  I also hadn't been out in the daylight at all yet so I decided to walk down to Shakespeare's and knock a few more beers off my list.

As I've mentioned, n the menu they list the beers with their alcohol content, so today was one of those days that I just scanned for the biggest number I could find that I hadn't already had yet.  St. Peter's Cream Stout was what I ended up with and oh was it delicious.  I especially liked the bottle, partly because it was about a glass and a half's worth of beer, but also because it looked like something a pirate would be drinking out of.  One of the bartender's said it was the kind of bottle you'd want in your hand during a bar brawl.

Speaking of the bartenders, this was the first time that I actually managed to befriend the girls behind the bar and I couldn't have been more pleased.  I was the most excited about the beautiful asian girl, mostly so the next time Jon comes to visit I can show him that there are other types of people in Sarasota besides white people.  Also because she had amazing hair.

I ended up ordering a stella after my st. pete's mostly because I still had food to finish, to be honest I was already feeling quite loopy from the pirate beer.  It was fine anyways as just as I was getting ready to go the bar was picking up and the girls were moving on to more lucrative patrons anyways.  I got two stamps on my card, I got what I came for, the rest was all a bonus.

9x2

I was perusing the list trying to decide what I might want when I decided that all I really wanted was something with a high alcohol content, so I picked La Fin Du Monde which boasted a 9% alcohol content.  It was delicious and from Canada so it provided for me ask what it was all aboot repeatedly, which pleased me.

I chose the second beer entirely based on the name.

It was the special bottle of the day so it didn't have the alcohol content listed on the menu or on the chalkboard.  I figured, with a name like Lagunitas The Hairy Eyeball how could I go wrong.

Well turns out it was also a 9% alcohol content brew so by the time I finished this I was pretty gone.  If I had it all to do over again I might have chosen differently, just because both of these beers were very good, but I don't think I was prepared to get that loaded of off two drinks.  I was glad that I got the hairy eyeball while it was the special though, especially when I saw their catch phrase at the bottom:

For some reason this made me think of Meghan.

After my boozy sunday evening I ended up coming home and watching like 4 straight hours of true crime shows on one of those trashy stations like the ID channel.  It was glorious.  I guess I have no complaints really, maybe these two beers are a winning combination for me.

another one down

Actually I had two different beers but the other one was a draft so I didn't feel obligated to take a picture of it.

I don't know about this delirium nocturnum.  It tasted ok, not the greatest tasting beer I've ever had, and I guess it got me a little more loopy than your average beer, but that also could have been a placebo affect.  I mean, I could get hammered off non alcoholic beer if I didn't realize that it was non alcoholic.

The other beer I got was a special draft, the anderson valley summer ale.  I think that's what it was called.  I know I kept thinking it was the john anderson summer ale for a long time because I was thinking about our highschool ballroom dance instructor.  Of course thinking about him always makes me think of Ms. Slowinski who was way more fantastic than any of us gave her credit for at the time.

So here's to you Ms. Slowinski, every time I hear, "chain of fools" I think of you.

Anyways, the summer ale was actually really delicious.  It tasted like cream soda!  I highly recommend if you find yourself at a bar that serves it.

Hmm I feel like I should have a sign off for these posts.

So until next time, happy drinking.

more beer

Ok so my new plan is to bring a little notebook with me so I can write things down about the beers as I'm having them because at this point looking back on the ones from the other night all I can think is, 'ugh i never want to drink again'.

But I know they were good, I did enjoy them at the time.  It's just that I got HAMMERED.  Not so much from the St. Martin, and not so much from the hobgoblin:

That picture was really hard to get, not only because the bar was dark, but also because I was HAMMERED.   Did I mention that part?

And it was all because of a little beer seen here:

Ra ra rasputin, lover of the russian queen.

This beer had some ridiculous alcohol % and seemed to pour with the viscosity of olive oil.  I don't remember much from after I had it except there was laughter, and there were tears.

I'm thankful this bar is walking distance from home.

beers around the world

As I mentioned before Scott and I have entered a "beers from around the world" competition at the local pub.  It's 80 beers and when you finish they put your picture up on a wall.  I'm very excited.

The first time we went I had a guinness and a black and tan.  This time I had a blue moon because we had been talking about it earlier, then decided to just start picking randomly from the numbers I had left between 1 and 80.  I first chose 60 which was the stone levitation.  It was good, I think maybe having it right after a blue moon made me think they tasted very similar and I wouldn't have if I had just had it fresh, but regardless I liked it.  I also liked the bottle, it commands respect.

The next beer I had was magic hat:

I'm sure you've seen or had magic hat before, I took a picture of it more so I would remember that I had it.  At this point I was pretty wasted.  I actually had never had magic hat before, it was ok.  It tasted kind of like fruity pebbles to me.  I might order it again.  I am not sure what made me pick it, I don't remember what number it was.  On the front of the cards is the logo of the bar which has Shakespeare's picture in the center.  I think I might have chosen whichever number would punch out his smug mug.  Take that Shakespeare, now where's your soliloquy?

Hmmm doesn't have the same affect as, "now where's barbara walters"

Anyways, I look forward to updating you all as I make progress on my way around the world with sweet lady beer.

Also, I'd like to go ahead and get this out of the way now so I never have to think of it again.  Every time I leave this bar we walk past the hair salon next door which features this as their logo:

And every time I see it I think that it's a woman wrapped up in seaweed.  She looks kind of like the girl in casino royale who they find wrapped up in the hammock.  I don't care for it and I just had to get that off my chest.

a nice day for a walk

With nothing else to do on our Easter sunday, Scott and I headed on a walk that ended up at our local irish pub where we entered the beers from around the world contest.  I'm excited, if we drink all 80 beers they put our picture up on their wall of fame!

But this posting is about the walk and how it was lovely, while at the same time often confusing.  For example, why?:

I mean, that is a pretty fantastic name, but who does that?  This was just a modest home on a quaint little street, nothing grande, certainly not a "place" as far as is my understanding of places.  But I do love that name.

This is the street they live on:

Pretty right?  The street was super long and only really big enough for one car.  I'd love to live on a street like this.

Except then you'd have neighbors like these people:

Now these stick people are a funny thing.  They started showing up around here a few years ago and they seem to be catching on in a similar fashion as those stickers in the back window showing what your family unit consists of.  Except these are giant, faintly terrifying, stick people that sit on the roadside watching the traffic pass with their vacant smiles and cold dead eyes.

Not convinced that these things are bad news?  Upon getting over the bridge I could see in to the backyard of this person's house and this is what I saw:

The fact that all you can see is the giant head strapped down to the flatbed of a truck is chilling.  Imagine how big that sucker is going to be when it's assembled?  And where are they going to put that?  As I pondered these questions my mind wandered over to their dock and what should I see but ANOTHER lone sentinel standing guard over the water:

Seriously I would never even want to break in to that house so I guess they are doing a good job as guards.  You'd probably break in and find the entire house full of those metal people, set up to be partying and enjoying themselves like the cardboard cut outs in Home Alone.

I'm going to keep an eye on this house.  I want to make sure there are actually people living there, they haven't been replaced by metal clones.

It's not a bad walk to get down there anyways.  And the views from the bridge are fantastic:

treasured memories

My computer has started telling me that there isn't even enough free space for me to download pictures off my phone to use for my blog.  So I've decided it's time to back up my old files and do a clean sweep.

Of course this is also an excuse to take a trip down old memory lane.  I'll try not to bore you all with a million pictures of my life from the past 10 years (that's about how far back the pictures go), but aren't those sunflowers pretty?  They were in a field down the street from where I used to live in South Carolina.  Meghan and I took a trip out there one day, I think when we were playing hooky from summer school, and had a photo shoot.

There were also many pictures of our debauchery in and around charleston throughout our youth.  A bunch of great photos from the night we were house/dog-sitting for Jojo's aunt and uncle.  For some reason we were all wearing trucker hats, as was the style at the time.  Many of the pictures will not be seen as they feature too many faces and too much beer cans and other paraphernalia (wtf that is seriously the spelling of that word) that I don't need sullying my blog.

But here are some pictures of a nice nice doggy!